The present invention relates to a system for monitoring compliance with hygiene policies.
Systems to promote hygiene have been used in the healthcare industries as well as the food processing and preparation industries. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,125,482, U.S. Pat. No. 6,038,331, U.S. Pat. No. 5,966,573, U.S. Pat. No. 5,952,924, U.S. Pat. No. 5,954,069, U.S. Pat. No. 5,945,910, U.S. Pat. No. 5,939,974, U.S. Pat. No. 5,900,801, U.S. Pat. No. 5,812,059, U.S. Pat. No. 5,793,653, U.S. Pat. No. 5,781,942, U.S. Pat. No. 5,610,589, U.S. Pat. No. 5,202,666, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,199,118.
Hygiene monitoring systems, which incorporate various features of the present invention, monitor location of persons in a facility, location of equipment in the facility, activities performed by persons in the facility, activities performed by equipment in the facility, and/or activities performed on equipment in the facility. From such gathered information, the hygiene monitoring systems determine whether certain actions (e.g. washing of a person""s hands, washing of a piece of equipment) need to take place in order to comply with a hygiene policy defined for the facility. The hygiene monitoring systems may evaluate level of compliance with the hygiene policy, and provide persons with information (e.g. alerts, reminders, etc.) which aid in increasing the level of compliance with the hygiene policy.